NIGERIA: FELLOWSHIP, NOT CONFRONTATION

Yesterday, Friday, all over Kano and Nigeria, special supplications were offered to Allah to deliver this country and to protect us; from the Subh prayers at dawn to the Jumu’ah prayers in the afternoon, supplications rang out from mosques small and large – “O Allah! Deliver us!” And in our history as Muslims, this is […]

Yesterday, Friday, all over Kano and Nigeria, special supplications were offered to Allah to deliver this country and to protect us; from the Subh prayers at dawn to the Jumu’ah prayers in the afternoon, supplications rang out from mosques small and large – “O Allah! Deliver us!” And in our history as Muslims, this is not the first time we have gone through this. Worse had happened, and we survived.

Back in 1258, almost eight hundred years ago, Mongol forces under Hulagu Khan devastated the Muslim Abbasid Caliphate in what is now known as The Siege of Baghdad. History records that the attack was for no apparent reason, for the Caliphate had much earlier entered into a peace treaty with the Ilkhanate Mongols. It was just a Scourge from God. The invasion left Baghdad in a state of total destruction. Estimates of the number of inhabitants massacred were up to 1,000,000. Baghdad was sacked and burned. That event is widely regarded by Western writers as the end of the Islamic Golden Age.

Those Mongol hordes did not only attack Muslims; they also sacked many Christian cities. All over the then religious world (Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Bhuddist), the supplications rising from the mosques, cathedrals and temples were the same: “O Lord! Deliver us!” And Kano, as Baghdad, has been devastated. But in sha Allah we will survive to celebrate, if not a Golden Age, but a Golden Jubilee next year when our Emir shall be fifty years as our leader.

Much earlier than the Mongols, the then newly Christian Western world had suffered another Scourge – Attila the Hun. By the fifth century of the Christian era, the Huns were an aggressive, dangerous, conquering tribe under their leader, Attila, known as ‘the Scourge of God’. Attila played a very infamous role in the misfortunes of the Christian Eastern Roman Empire, then in its heydays. In 447 AD (a century before the birth of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, upon whom be peace), Attila inflicted such heavy devastation in those early Christian times only equalled by Hulagu Khan almost a millennium later.

Attila did against Christendom what Hulagu did to the Lands of Islam. A historian, Callinicus, in his Life of Saint Hypatius, put it thus: “The barbarian nation of the Huns…became so great that more than a hundred cities were captured…And there were so many murders and blood-lettings that the dead could not be numbered. Ay, for they took captive the churches and monasteries and slew the monks and maidens in great numbers.”

Now, has anyone noticed the pictures of Nigerian Christian women pilgrims worshipping at the churches of Palestine recently? Did you not notice them wearing all-white apparel, covered from head to toe, be-hijabed, not unlike Muslim women at the Ka’aba in Makka? Have you not noticed also how those Christian women prostrated at the grottos, with their heads to the ground, not unlike Muslim women in sujud, praying at the Prophet’s Mosque in Madina? And have you not noticed how those Christian women held up their two hands in supplication and prayer, much like their Muslim sisters anywhere? Then you wonder ‘where is the conflict’?

Allah has said in the Qur’an: “…and nearest among them in love to the believers [Muslims] will you find those who say, ‘We are Christians,’ because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant” (5:82).

In Nigeria, among the families of many a Bishop are Muslims, and they do not fight. Remember Senator Nasiru Ibrahim Mantu from Plateau State? He did not lose his seat because he is a Muslim or he is not loved by his numerous Christian relatives; he happened to be in the wrong party at the particular time. And has any Ijaw questioned the Muslim-ness of Alhaji Abubakar Mujahid Asari Dokubo of the Niger Delta Volunteer Force? Does his being Muslim reduce his Ijawness? Or does the fact that Alhaji Aliyu Kevin Danesi, the Aidonogie of South Ibie in Edo State, is Secretary of the South South Monarchs’ Forum reduce his Southern-ness? If that is the case, then what is the case?

Our basic tragedy in Nigeria is that most our leaders, Muslim and Christian, including the clergy, do not know the history of either Islam or Christianity. They therefore do not know the right sound-bites to use in times of tension. Our leaders must be daft to be ignorant of the ‘add-fuel-to-the-fire’ foreign media organisations working in this country, or the crassly ignorant local media stations that only aggravate serious situations by making unguarded comments which make one want to strangle their radio and television sets. No investigation, no education, no information. And as for our clueless leaders, they should note that the Americans are looking for ways to open Dialogue with the Taliban.

Back in 628 AD, a delegation from St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai came to Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, and requested his protection. He responded by granting them a charter of right, reproduced here:

“This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them.

“No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims’ houses.

“Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God’s covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.

“No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants.

“No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day.”

That was Prophet Muhammad’s hand of Fellowship; Nigerian Muslims also offer a similar hand to Nigerian Christians in these trying times. Where are the takers? And may Allah wipe the tears off the face of the Emir of Kano, and all of us. Amin.